


Foretold

by LadyAniko



Series: Fire & Water [6]
Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: And just really loving his son Zuko, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, F/M, Fluff, POV Iroh (Avatar), This is essentially Iroh shipping Zutara through the years, Wedding, brief angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-08
Updated: 2021-01-08
Packaged: 2021-03-12 05:53:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,305
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28630587
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LadyAniko/pseuds/LadyAniko
Summary: So much in common. Understanding and empathy forged even through destruction and chaos. That was when I first began to wonder if perhaps they were inevitable.What can I say? I am also a very sentimental man, and I’ve only become more so with age.
Relationships: Iroh & Zuko (Avatar), Katara/Zuko (Avatar)
Series: Fire & Water [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2098116
Comments: 6
Kudos: 79





	Foretold

**Author's Note:**

> Happy 2021! 
> 
> This little idea aggressively distracted me until I agreed to write it to quell the demon muse. Hope you enjoy.😊

* * *

I try to be a humble man.

To say I regret the ideologies and actions of my youth and even well into my middle-aged years is an understatement, but I can say with cautious confidence that even then my fatal flaw was not hubris. I was many other things, oh yes—ignorant, brainwashed, cruel, the list goes on; and for many, many years after I began to change I despised myself for all those things of my past—but prideful, at least, I was not.

Still, I cannot help feeling a certain smugness, sitting here now, as I think about how I accurately predicted this day.

The first inkling of it, the first kindling of the vague, lingering suspicion, happened in that cave glowing with green crystals.

You see, I am moderately well-read when it comes to other cultures, more so than most with a similar background, at least, for I have realized that studying and growing from each other makes us all stronger. And the imagery and setting of that day reminded me immediately of an old Earth Kingdom tale. The similarities were far too striking to be ignored: a cave in the Earth Kingdom, the low, glittering green light emanating faintly from the crystals to illuminate the dark, two young people on opposite sides of a war—enemies—and yet, upon my arrival, standing mere inches away from each other and not looking remotely like enemies at all.

So much in common. Understanding and empathy forged even through destruction and chaos.

That was when I first began to wonder if perhaps they were inevitable.

What can I say? I am also a very sentimental man, and I’ve only become more so with age.

My pondering on the matter was only brief, however, only a very fleeting question in my mind, because I knew back then that he still had a long way to go until he became the man he is now, the one I always knew that he could be.

My fear for him that day outweighed any other matters, and my fears came true when he turned away from me and back toward old patterns instead. He’d been conditioned to believe that his self-worth relied on the approval of his father, you see, that love is a conditional thing, and he had not quite let go of this lingering damage from a childhood of deceit and harm.

I’d already told him he was like my son. I’d done everything I could. When he was ready, he could have a father figure that really loves him.

But he wasn’t ready. Not that day.

When I arrived at the scene of the fight it wasn't really a fight any more, and she looked so broken. She was kneeling, tears streaming down her face, with the Avatar gathered close to her; that sweet, bald-headed little boy was limp in her arms, the one who had so earnestly asked for my advice not even thirty minutes before, so achingly desperate to do the right thing. I remember that my chest and stomach lurched, and for the smallest of seconds I felt true, deep despair. But then it was gone, and I was fighting in order to help them escape. I’d been a secret traitor to my nation for a long time, but that was the day I made it unequivocally known.

I saw him standing near his sister, and I knew he’d made his choice.

* * *

In retrospect, I know it was important for him to go back home. He had to return and experience it all again after everything he’d learned during his banishment. It’s one thing for me to tell him to choose his own destiny, that his self-worth and honor comes from within. But it’s quite another for him to live it, and just like anyone that needs to make a great spiritual change, it was something he had to do, and do alone.

That did not make it any easier for me, waiting in imprisonment, hoping fervently that no serious harm was being done to him.

On the day I broke out, I could only hope that he would find the strength to do the same.

* * *

When I finally saw him again it was weeks later, and he had changed.

We were again in the city I had once tried to raze to the ground. I told you that I am not proud of many things, didn’t I? But there’s nothing to be done about it now. I can, after all, only move forward. That’s all any of us can do, isn’t it? Ever forward.

I was so proud that day. So unbelievably moved by his journey and by having him with me again.

He’d joined the Avatar, and there were moments where I glimpsed a serenity on his face, even in the midst of war and peril, even in the midst of strategic battle discussion. I had never seen it on him before but I saw it now, as I sat with the group of them at our camp. But the bonds of true friendship can bring us peace, even in the most difficult of times.

It was here that I wondered for a second time about them, this time with more certainty than before that I was seeing something special.

It was her that he chose to help him fight his sister. She was pleased, almost viciously so, and later, as they prepared the sky bison for departure, I noted their comfort around each other. Whatever tentative bond had begun in the cave had strengthened to something powerful. Anyone paying attention could see it. It was in small details, like how he carefully packed their possessions so she wouldn’t have to. And it was in their body language; the way they hovered close even when it wasn’t strictly necessary, or how she once gripped his arm when his brow furrowed in distracted worry and gave him a smile of support and promise.

She puts him at ease, I think, in a way others can not. Including me. And I got a first glimpse of it that day.

And he—well. I know him well. And he looked at her differently than he did the others. And spoke differently to her, as well. If I had to describe it with one word it would probably have to be ‘soft.’ He was softer with her.

But soon we were all separated again, and war pressed on, and matters of the heart had to be temporarily forgotten in favor of surviving.

* * *

After it was all over and he was crowned Fire Lord and life began to move on was when it became really obvious. At least to me.

It was harrowing, really. Watching them dance around each other for years. Date other people and be quietly and painfully confused. The years that followed were full of visits with hesitant, would-be platonic touches and hugs (would it not be for the looks in their eyes), with blushes and shy smiles, stares that lingered on the other’s face longer than strictly necessary when they thought no one could see. And they came to rely on each other, too. They supported each other. I know that it was her that he wanted to confide in about his troubles, or his triumphs, because I often saw them speaking together quietly so others couldn't hear. They were inseparable.

I may be an old man, but I know falling in love when I see it—did it myself once, after all, when I was younger. The way they cared for each other was so palpable, for so long, that I sometimes had to actively restrain myself not to say something, to nudge them in the direction they clearly wanted to go.

* * *

By the next visit a few months later something had shifted between them. I noted it easily. The smiles were no longer shy, but secretive. The gazes were no longer happening when the other person wasn’t looking, but purposeful, made with the hopes of catching the other person’s eye. They thought they had a secret, and I let them go on believing it.

* * *

It was on a late night stroll on her third visit after that, more months later, when I accidentally caught the snippets of a heated conversation.

“—been deluded for thinking we could actually continue this, apparently. Go on and find yourself a Fire Lady, then.” Her voice was like acid.

“That’s not what I meant!” He was louder than usual in his agitation, and she rose her tone in response.

“Oh no? Then what did you mean? Because it _sounded_ like—”

I kept walking, quickening my pace. This was their quarrel, their conversation, their relationship, and it wasn’t meant for my ears. And besides, some calming jasmine tea was calling my name—the whole reason I’d gotten out of my comfortable bed in the first place. Still, when she departed early from that visit and he spent the following weeks looking thoroughly miserable and thinking he was somehow hiding it, I worried. They’d been good for each other. They both challenged each other and stabilized each other. I liked the match. I’d never seen my nephew so relaxed as when he was with her, and with a nation to run he needed all the relaxation he could get. And though I didn’t know her as well as I know him, I had seen the way she practically glowed whenever they were together.

I did not interfere or ask, even if I wanted to. I knew that if he needed me he would let me know, and one day he finally did.

“Uncle,” he’d said suddenly, one afternoon while we were having tea in his study, “The advisors keep telling me that I have to marry.”

“Oh?” I feigned ignorance, but I was already well aware of this. They’d been pestering me about it too, telling me to urge the Fire Lord to finally marry. Politically it was understandable and certainly was becoming glaringly necessary, but it distressed him, and I knew why.

“Yeah. Yeah, they—they tell me to marry a suitable option here in the Fire Nation. That with all the changes happening during this time, the citizens would appreciate some tradition and stability. It makes people feel more secure, they said.”

“Mmm. Not bad advice, I suppose.” I took a slow sip of my tea, waiting for him to get to the point he clearly needed to make.

He suddenly looked very troubled, staring hard down at his desk. “But I—does it have to be a Fire Nation woman? Is that my duty?”

“Of course not.”

He looked up, then, and I saw hope blazing in his eyes. “Really? You think so?”

“I am not going to pretend you should not think of your position at all when choosing a wife,” I told him. “It is wise to consider the consequences of your choice. But the choice is still yours to make. Some citizens may prefer seeing a traditional, well-bred woman of high birth at your side, that is true. But others may actually want someone who cares about _them_ —just as their Fire Lord does.” I smiled. “If your wife is kind and cares about the common plight of the people, then the citizens who matter, the ones you should care about pleasing— _they_ will undoubtedly love her.”

There was a silence in which he sat gripping the tea cup tightly between his fingers, an almost hazy look on his face. “But of course,” I continued, “that’s the woman that you love anyway, isn’t it?”

He swallowed. “Yes,” he agreed, very quietly. “It is.”

* * *

They’d worked things out, even publicly announced their relationship, on her very next visit.

I saw them both happy and fulfilled as they worked together to better the world. She traveled often, ever the busy and talented woman, but she always returned to see him, and to share stories of her trips with me over comfortable hours of tea. Things weren't perfect, because things never are, but times were good. Happy. Prosperous. And they still are.

One year later and here I am, freezing in the South Pole despite the warm fur coats they so graciously gave me, but still enjoying the beautiful view of the sunset playing across the sparkling ice. I watch when they walk, past their now cheering guests and away from the water's edge, where they had become official husband and wife. She’d wanted to make it official here first, and of course he’d agreed. Of course he had, because it’s him, because it’s her, and because they both give so freely for each other.

Their eyes are bright today, gazes brimming with adoration and love. It has not faded over time, their reverence for each other.

She looks lovely, and more importantly she _is_ lovely. Right to the core. I could not ask for a better partner for him.

And seeing Chief Hakoda’s smile as he watches the couple, I know he feels the same for his daughter.

Her hand squeezes his arm tightly as they walk together, their smiles wide as they take in the crowd. His hand comes over to cover hers on his arm. They say something to each other, quietly; another promise, just for them. I can only see their lips move.

“I love you, Katara,” he tells her.

“I love you, Zuko,” she responds.

And as he tucks an arm securely around her waist, happier than I’ve ever seen him, I feel tears slipping down my cheeks.

* * *

Perhaps I should amend my earlier words to something more accurate.

I am not _prideful_.

But I am proud. I am proud of Zuko and Katara, of what they are separately and together, and I know I always will be.

**Author's Note:**

> [come chat with me on tumblr, if you like!](https://ladyaniko.tumblr.com/)


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